Expectations about the environment play a large role in shaping behavior, but how does this occur? Do expectations change the way we perceive the world, or just our decisions based on unbiased perceptions? We investigated the relative contributions of priors to these 2 stages by manipulating "when" information about expected color was…

This study compared how distinct lexical competences, including lexical knowledge as well as processing skills at both word/lexical and sublexical/morphological levels, collectively and relatively predict reading comprehension in adult learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). The participants were 220 Arabic-speaking EFL learners in a…

In this paper, I examine memory as it relates to politics and early childhood education in the context of the internationally known preschools of Reggio Emilia in Italy. I draw a connection between foundational stories, ideologies connected to Italian politics in the 1970s, and the construction of the educational visions in these preschools. To do…

This study evaluates the feasibility of the NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery (NIH-TCB) for use in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). 116 autistic children and adolescents and 80 typically developing (TD) controls, ages 3-17 years, completed four NIH-TCB tasks related to inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, processing speed, and episodic memory.…

Development dyslexia (DD) is a common language disorder, which significantly affects children. Despite having ordinary intelligence, dyslexic people struggle with reading, writing, and comprehension in their native tongue. It is still unclear whether dyslexic kids have difficulties with visuo-spatial working memory. Using meta-analysis, this gap…

This self-study presents an autoethnography which combines the writing about memories of meaningful formal and informal learning I experienced during my childhood, and self-reflection on those episodes to identify associations which are likely to have inspired my pedagogical beliefs and practice as a teacher educator. It has been experienced as an…

Laboratory research has demonstrated that when students are instructed to use retrieval (i.e., recalling from memory information to be learned) rather than rereading (i.e., reading the material repeatedly) they learn better. However, little is known about spontaneous use of retrieval. In the present studies, we designed a scale to measure…

Empathy is crucial for our social life, with evidences suggesting that executive function is the cognitive basis of empathy. However, debates about the causal relationship between executive function and empathy still exist. A two-wave and one-year longitudinal follow-up experiment is conducted to investigate this problem, mainly focusing on…

Previous research with adults has shown mixed findings regarding the correlation between specificity and detailedness within autobiographical memories, and their associations with depressive symptoms. However, minimal research has tested these links in adolescents, despite the importance of this developmental period. The present investigation…

The current experiment examined the effect of forewarning on children's (11 to 12 years of age) and adults' spontaneous false memory creation by presenting participants with semantically related word lists that are often used to elicit false memories (i.e., Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm). The forewarning consisted of an explanation of…

The NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery (NIHTB-CB) was developed for epidemiological and longitudinal studies across a wide age span. Such a tool may be useful for intervention trials in conditions characterized by intellectual disability (ID), such as Williams syndrome (WS). Three NIHTB-CB tasks, including two executive functioning (Flanker,…

One developmental task faced by children is to identify, remember, and learn from epistemic and moral agents around them who are known to be good or virtuous. Here, in 2 studies, we examined U.S children's (N = 138; 55% female, 45% male; predominantly White, middle-class) memory processes for agents varying in moral and epistemic virtue. In Study…

This article discusses the role of the three components of executive functions (EF) in geometric understanding. Discussing several examples of geometry problems, this article shows how EF are actively employed to solve geometry problems. Inhibition as the first component of EF helps the individual to suppress contextually irrelevant information.…

This study aimed to explore the possible indirect pathway between maternal reminiscing style and child socioemotional functioning (prosocial behaviors and emotional adjustment difficulties) through children's autobiographical memory (elaboration and specificity). A secondary exploratory aim was to examine whether cultural context moderated these…

Perceivers spontaneously segment ongoing activity into discrete events. This segmentation is important for the moment-by-moment understanding of events, but may also be critical for how events are encoded into episodic memory. In 3 experiments, we used priming to test the possibility that perceptual event boundaries organize memory for everyday…